“Signal” (Series Review)

How compelling is supernatural police procedural Signal? Well, when I came across it for the first time, I was casually flipping channels in my Korean apartment. It didn’t have subtitles, but I watched for a full hour—even though I didn’t understand a single word. Every scene felt so urgent that I couldn’t turn it off.

Signal is one of many recent K-dramas in which the past haunts the present. The haunting is sometimes gentle, as in the romantic comedy Twenty Again. Sometimes the ghosts of the past are violent—the forgotten traumas of Kill Me, Heal Me, the murdered child in Pride and Prejudice, the scary but beloved lost brother in I Remember You.

Among these stories of lost time remembered, the suspenseful Signal is perhaps the most masterful.

Signal is also the darkest and scariest, which may turn some viewers away. But Signal doesn’t forget that its first responsibility is entertainment. It might not be cute, but it does draw viewers along hypnotically.

Audiences in Korea agreed, watching Signal in large numbers even though it aired on pay cable channel tvN. It was the most-watched show in Korea during its time slot for most of its 16-episode run. This was remarkable for a dark, violent cable show, even one directed by Misaeng’s PD Kim Won-Seok. (It didn’t come close, however, to the viewer records set by Answer Me 1988, the lighter, more comic show that preceded it in this time slot.)

It’s hard to choose Signal’s most interesting character. Park Hae-Young (Lee Je-Hoon) is an arrogant police profiler who moonlights as a celebrity stalker (for a bit of extra cash, one suspects). Cha Soo-Hyeon (an intense, charismatic Kim Hye-Soo) is a pioneering female detective who has suffered herself at the hands of criminals. And Lee Jae-Han (Jo Jin-Woong) is an idealistic and irascible police officer who disappeared years before our story begins. He breaks dramatically into Park Hae-Young and Cha Soo-Hyeon’s world via an aging police walkie-talkie buried in a bag of trash.

When the obsolete walkie-talkie crackles to life one evening in the present, Hae-Young answers and hears Jae-Han calling from the nineteen-nineties. At first neither man can believe they’re communicating with another era, but before long they’re working together to solve difficult, grisly cases from the nineties. (Many of these cases are based on real events.) As they solve these cases with Soo-Hyeon’s unwitting help, they move closer to the biggest mystery of all: Jae-Han’s own disappearance years before.

Part of Signal’s success is the smart way it handles its supernatural elements. The walkie-talkie is a magical object that only comes to life for a few minutes at a time, and only at 11:23 pm. Sometimes it goes dead for days, weeks or years at a time. Our heroes can’t control it. They can only try to nudge the world into the shape they want, through short, sometimes cryptic conversations.

From the beginning, the radio suggests the world is stranger than we imagine. In their first encounter, Jae-Han calls Lieutenant Park by name. “I’m at the place you told me about,” he says. “Why did you tell me not to come here? What’s going to happen here?”

Detective Cha Soo-Hyeon (Kim Hye-Soo) and Park Hae-Young dislike each other, but they share a desire to find out the truth

Lieutenant Park is baffled. He doesn’t know this man. He’s never seen this radio before. But it appears their fates are intertwined. And in stories with a time travel element, fates can intertwine in very complicated ways—even if the only thing that travels through time is information.

The supernatural premise succeeds so well because of its limitations. Signal isn’t science fiction or fantasy so much as magical realism. We stick close to the reality of our own world—complete with rape, murdered children, mistaken arrests, and collapsing infrastructure. Yet Signal’s uncanny plot device allows it to avoid the predictability and repetition that can deaden detective shows. Here, day-to-day police work is full of possibility. Anything can happen in this series, especially as the characters work larger and larger changes in the present world.

Eventually, Hae-Young and Jae-Han run up against events that cannot be changed, injustices that cannot be corrected. Sometimes the bad guys win. As is often the case on Korean television, the ultimate bad guy is a wealthy industrialist who operates beyond the law. But Signal doesn’t dwell on his machinations. It suggests rather than spells out the ways that many lives are damaged by one man’s greed.

The concluding episodes are 90 minutes long, but the suspense over Lee Jae-Han’s disappearance makes them go quickly. Can Hae-Young warn him and save him? Or is this one of those things that can’t be changed? Will the warning itself change events for the worse?

Kim Hye-Soo’s performance as Cha Soo-Hyeon is one of the series’ pleasures

The last ten minutes of the series don’t entirely answer this question, but the openness of the ending feels right.

Some have criticized the ending for being an attempt to milk a second season from the highly-rated show, but I disagree. True, a second season would be a mistake for this narrative. But if we set aside the risk of a second season and judge the ending on its own merits, it’s smart.

The final episode turns the heroes’ world topsy-turvy and introduces unexpected twists. But this is in keeping with the kind of story Signal tells. The setting is a world where many things are possible, thanks to that supernatural radio. The ending is simultaneously hopeful and full of tension, appropriate feelings for a world where nothing is ever permanently resolved. The series retains its atmosphere of uncanny possibility until the last frames, which wouldn’t be possible with a more conventional ending.

At the same time, the characters’ emotions in the end are clear and logical. We know where we stand and how events have affected our heroes and heroines. This is in contrast to a show like tvN’s 2013 Nine Time Travels, where the final twist arguably didn’t make sense either emotionally or narratively. (Nine Time Travels: Good show, but I’m still trying to figure out the ending.)

Scenes from the present are washed in a melancholy blue glow

One of the things that gives Signal its eerie intensity is the acting. Jo Jin-Woong, Lee Je-Hoon and Kim Hye-Soo give top-notch performances (minus a smidgen of overacting from Lee Je-Hoon in the early episodes). So do the many fine character actors in secondary roles, in particular Jung Hae-Kyun (as Section Chief Ahn) and Lee Sang-Yeob. This last actor gives a memorable performance as a serial killer who is genuinely horrifying yet ultimately pitiable.

The series is a pleasure to look at, despite a drab, subdued palette. The scenes that take place in the past use a golden, slightly sepia-toned color scheme, while current-era scenes have a vivid blue cast. The past also appears in a slightly squashed aspect ratio—possibly a nod to 2003’s award-winning Memories of Murder, which addressed similar crimes and themes.

The fluid camera work gracefully ties together Signal‘s past and present. There’s no sign here of the rushed, slapdash editing that sometimes mars even the most thoughtful K-dramas. Early in the first episode, for instance, one thirty-second traveling shot moves smoothly from present action, to memories of the past, to past action. We traverse decades as easily as other series traverse rooms. It’s the kind of audacious shot that film geeks will want to watch again.

And despite the heavy subject matter, the occasional moments of humor are executed with a deft, light touch. Director Kim is the guy, after all, who brought us the dark humor of Misaeng and the delightful silliness of Sungkyunkwan Scandal. The humorous moments prevent Signal from taking itself too seriously.

The altered aspect ratio visually distinguishes scenes in the past from the present, as well as giving them a nostalgic texture (Jo Jin-Woong)

Among the many things Signal gets right, it features a great heroine. Cha Soo-Hyeon is no-nonsense policewoman whose heart of gold is hidden under layers of professional competence. She’s the kind of every-woman heroine that we don’t usually find outside of movies starring Sigourney Weaver and a giant alien.

When we first meet Soo-Hyeon in the middle of her career, she’s a dignified, commanding presence. Kim Hye-Soo plays her like some ancient Greek goddess of Shrewdness, always one step ahead of the men she works with. When the series goes back in time to Lee Jae-Han’s period, we see her at the beginning of her career, and we witness her growth from an overawed new policewoman into a leader. She’s a woman to reckon with, which makes her occasional fears and emotional pain riveting.

She’s also a formidable opponent to Park Hae-Young early in the series, when she’s suspicious of the young man’s motives. Eventually a collegial relationship and delicate friendship grows between the older woman and younger man.

Cha Soo-Hyeon is as likable and sympathetic a character as she is tough and good at her job

Crime shows are too often a showcase for the great clichés of television. In the earliest episodes, Signal does present a few over-familiar elements—the grieving mother of a dead child, the statute of limitations ticking down, the expository dialogue about clues. But with its brisk directing, thoughtful acting and touch of the unreal, Signal is unpredictable and emotionally deep, one of the best shows of the year—not just in Korea, but anywhere. ♥

Overall: 10/10 (Well, technically I’m giving it a 9.333 out of 10, but it would be petty not to round up for a show this good.)

Writing: 9/10

Acting: 9/10

Production & Directing: 10/10

Reasons to Watch:

Gripping suspense and unpredictable narrative twists and turns

Memorable three-dimensional characters who stand up for what they believe

The eerie music, the eerie atmosphere, the eerie supernatural premise

Reasons not to Watch:

It’s not for the faint of heart. The team handles disturbing crimes and accidents. (Though this isn’t American television; most violence is implied rather than shown. But it’s implied so well that this is a scary, scary show.)

If you can’t suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the logical impossibilities of time travel stories.

Although the series contains a sort of romance, it’s very muted. This is the furthest thing from a romantic comedy.

Notes from the Meta-verse: In the first present-era scene, Signal alludes to Director Kim’s previous drama hit, 2015’s Misaeng. Park Hae-Young is selling celebrity gossip about the love lives of three of Misaeng’s stars. The journalist he’s meeting with says he knows the show, and “the Chief Oh character was great.” In fact, I think this journalist is an uncredited cameo by Lee Sung-Min, who won the 2015 Baeksang for his portrayal of Chief Oh in Misaeng. Another flash of meta-humor in this scene comes when Hae-Young flashes the photos of the latest celebrities he’s been stalking. The journalist is shocked by the news: Ji Sung is dating Lee Bo-Young! In the real world, the two celebrities have been an established and well-known couple for years. (They are now married with a daughter.) Glad to know they are finally getting together in the fictional world of Signal!

6 thoughts on ““Signal” (Series Review)”

Hi Odessa, insightful review of a fantastic drama. I went into Signal expecting it to be a Frequency copycat (Frequency is a 2000 film starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel that I probably watched no less than 10 times because … awesomeness). But they only really share the sci-fi walkie talkie / radio transmitter gimmick and the thematic message that changing the past sometimes has unforeseen and perhaps tragic consequences … and the awesomeness.

Not sure I’m as forgiving of the ending as you … but again, it’s all about managing expectations; I was expecting something epically bad (given some of the wailing and moaning in other reviews/comments), so I wasn’t very surprised, and only mildly miffed, that they went for the unexplainable and vaguely open-ended instead of offering plot closure and neatly dressing up the full frontal nudity of some of the narrative questions. But I lean towards needing character and emotional closure over plot closure anyway … which is why I was one of the few people who actually liked the ending of Lost, and which is what Signal actually does right in the end … it leaves our characters in the right place emotionally, offering a satisfying emotional fullness to their character arcs, even if we don’t necessarily understand how they got there (SPOILERS: I really would have at least liked to know what he was doing in the hospital for so long without contacting anyone except his dad, and how he Houdinied the evidence after the thugs converged on his car … and was he the one who leaked the evidence to the press in present day and why did he wait so long?).

I’m so glad though that I now have a drama other than Joseon X-Files that I can recommend to my fellow devotees of sci-fi, and to anyone really … this is such a well made and accessible drama. It has zero cultural transition time since there’s none of the aegyo and cringe-inducing awkwardness that are symptomatic of first-few-episoditis in K-dramas … so I actually don’t have to tell my friends, “You just have to get past the first few episodes … think of them as a cultural decontamination unit … they’re just the gateway to awesome that must be traversed, obstacles and all.” Here, the awesome starts with the first screenshot. Thanks for the review!

P.S. Curious … what are you watching now Odessa, other than Entertainer of course : ) ? Have you seen Marriage Contract, which tore my heart out in the best way? I feel like this is such a great year for K-dramas, there are so many coming up or airing that I’m excited about (W, Uncontrollably Fond, Mirror of the Witch, Beautiful Gong Shim, Another Miss Oh, Doctors, Beautiful Mind, Wanted, Cinderella and the Four Nights … because Jung Il Woo, Moonlight Drawn By Clouds, Scarlet Heart, Hwarang, Goblin … because Gong Yoo!!!, 38 Task Force, Bring it On Ghost, Legend of the Blue Sea … because I expect ratings will get shattered all over again). I just wish they’d finish airing already so I can marathon them : )

Hi Rouny! Great to hear your thoughts. I agree with your questions about the ending. Those are the big ones.

I tend to be pretty forgiving when it comes to the endings of time-travel stories. The narratives are already illogical from the beginning. Since cause and effect is a pretty basic fact of the universe.

Coming into the final episodes I couldn’t think of any way to resolve the series that wouldn’t kill me with sadness. I was grateful the writers came up with an ending I never would have thought of. I can understand the people who are annoyed, but the series was always about impossible things. The only difference is that the final episode doesn’t explain its impossibilities. But the series was never really about explaining things, but about the idea of how small things can change events. I’m okay with this ending–but I might feel very differently if they do write a second season. Because then they will need to explain some stuff.

P.S. I do keep watching Entertainer, for some ridiculous reason. (Okay, I think we all know why! :)) It causes me equal parts smiles and eye rolls. I binge-watched Marriage Contract and it was wonderful. The other show I’m watching right now is “Another Miss Oh.” I skipped a few episodes in the middle. Too much self-pity and binge-drinking. But I happened to tune in again this week, in time to catch all the amazing kissing. That got me curious about old stuff with Eric Mun, and I went back to the archives to watch a few episodes of Que Sera, Sera. It’s surprisingly steamy for a K-drama. I can see why it’s in the canon for some fans. Unfortunately the hero is as scary a jerk as I’ve ever seen. And not in a “my girlfriend dumped me and then got killed in a hit and run accident along with the unborn child I didn’t know I had, so now I have to get revenge on her murderer” kind of way. More like “I’m an emotionally abusive stalker who treats people like objects because I don’t have anything better to do with my time” kind of way. He gave me a new standard for creepiness in a K-hero. (And a new standard for K-drama kisses, gotta give him credit.)

I’ve watched early episodes of a few things, but your list reminds me that there’s too much to keep up! I have, of course, marked my calendar for Gong Yoo and Goblin!

I’ve never been a big fan of Eric Mun, though to be fair I’ve only ever seen him in “Que Sera Sera” … which probably explains why I’m not a big fan of his : ) I did appreciate “Que Sera Sera” though … it’s a very dark drama, with unlikable characters, but it was compelling to watch. Like you, I much prefer the “Secret” kind of anti-hero though … I loved that drama so much btw; yes, he was an asshole and a stalker and a self-entitled brat … but as viewers we always understood what motivated him, and when he fell in love he was just as uncompromising about that as he was about his revenge–he went all in. In “Que Sera Sera”, Eric Mun’s character was too much of an emotional coward and a tool to follow his heart, so he ended up being wishy washy in both his marriage of convenience and his relationship with the girl he really loved … Rather than watching him fall in love, we were watching him mess everything up … that’s just ugly to watch, with no cute or warm and fuzzy interludes (forced kisses don’t count) to cleanse the palate.

A perfect capsule review of “Que Sera Sera.” Dramafever describes it as “One of the most passionate and twisted dramas of all times.” Before I started watching I scoffed, thinking, hey, nothing can be more twisted than “Secret.” But QSS takes the twisted-ness prize. It’s weirdly compelling, though, so that I couldn’t resist watching another episode yesterday. Why? I don’t think Eric Mun is a good actor. I think it’s just the raw sexiness he bring to the part–combined with the unusual poor boy/rich girl plotline–that make it stand out.

Waah! Signal is my favorite Korean drama to date 🙂 I’m glad you like it too. I was blown away by the tight plot, amazing cinematography and realistic acting. I might be one of those who want to have a second season as long as the three leads, writer and director are all present.